Rick's List: Mother Knows Best

Published January 18. 2014 12:01AM

Rick Koster offers weekly lists of ideas, notions and things that must be seen to be believed. This week: Mother Knows Best.

In a few days, my Sainted Mother, Thelma Rose, turns 89. I was privileged earlier this week to spend some time with her as she recovers from the Scourge of Older Folks, a broken hip. She remains a full-humored warrior, and here is a short list of things (amongst many) about Mom that make me particularly grateful. Happy birthday!

1. Her version of ham/shrimp/chicken jambalaya is truly astonishing. She just doesn't make it enough.

2. See that Fender Mustang bass Glenn Hughes is playing on the cover of Trapeze's "You Are the Music, We're Just the Band"? Mom got me one for Christmas when I was 18, over the protests of her husband, Fiscal Santa.

3. In that spirit, and it may be genetic, but her passionate love of music is indelible.

4. She is similarly passionate about politics - and her views are typically opposite of mine. At a certain point in any point-by-point, she decides she's had enough of my goofery and ends the exchange with a sneering, "Take gas!" It delights me just to type that phrase.